


Teleporation

by Blue_Hood



Series: Power Prompts [4]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Mutants, Gen, Mutant Powers, Mutant Rights, Mutants, Pro-Sokovia Accords, Sokovia Accords, Superpowers, Teleportation
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-31
Updated: 2020-11-19
Packaged: 2021-03-08 18:46:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 6,548
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27311383
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blue_Hood/pseuds/Blue_Hood
Summary: Expansion of Chapter 5 of What Superpower Should Tony Stark Have?What if Tony could teleport? How would that change the Avengers' history? How would it change the Civil War or team dynamics?
Series: Power Prompts [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1986601
Comments: 23
Kudos: 60





	1. Civil War

When he saw Rhodey fall, all bets were off. Tony vanished and reappeared behind him, grabbing the sides of the War Machine armor and reappearing on the ground. Letting him settle on the ground, Tony teleported behind Rogers and Barnes, grabbed them and moved into the air, high enough to hurt them but not to kill the super soldiers. Then he jumped to just in front of Maximoff, swinging a leg out and backhanding her simultaneously to send her crashing to the ground. He only had to look and point at Wilson and the mystery man to get them to stand down. Sending a repulsor blast at each of the spy twins, he marched towards Black Panther. "You're gonna leave Barnes alone or we're gonna see just how far I can jump." The young king nodded seriously moving to join the rest of his team around War Machine.

Spider-Man was the one to break the tense silence as Iron Man and Vision gathered up Rogers' team for transport, "That was awesome. Have you always been able to do that?"

Tony grinned "Ever since I was your age, Underoos and that's all I'm saying for now."

Rogers' next statement shocked everyone "You're a mutant freak." He started spouting a bunch of bigoted bullshit but the shocking part wasn't anything he said, it was Barnes finding the strength after their fall to slug him unconscious.

Barnes turned to Tony "Howard's kid, right?"

With a sigh, Tony nodded "Yeah."

"I'm sorry."

"For?"

"I killed them."

A moment of dead silence preceded Tony suddenly vanishing and reappearing several hundred feet in the air. He let JARVIS control his fall, feeling too much all of a sudden. Rhodey got out of the suit, with a bit of help from Black Panther and looked up at the armor hovering a few feet off the air "You okay, Tones?"

"Not really. Kinda wanna kill Rogers."

"Why?"

"Barnes just admitted to killing my parents, I'm betting Romanoff and Rogers knew. I'll bet that's why they never asked my help in tracking him down. He said that in Lagos, Rumlow said Bucky's name and he was back in Brooklyn. First off, that's probably a lot mental issues coming to the surface, including PTSD. Second, I think it's more the implication that Barnes was back under HYDRA's control than Rumlow merely mentioning his name. I could've stopped Insight in my sleep, how long have they known?" Black Panther started to stalk towards Barnes but Tony fired a warning shot at him "Your kittyness, try to keep up. The Winter Soldier is the result of serious brainwashing, he has to be triggered to go from Barnes to the Soldier. Think about it, who gains from the bombing? I'm thinking the guy who triggered him in Bucharest gained more than anyone, he couldn't find Barnes so he made the world do it for him."

T'Challa stopped to consider his words "If I cannot kill Barnes then you cannot kill Rogers."

"Fine." Tony dropped to the ground and picked up Steve's fallen shield, bringing it over to the king. "Can I keep this? It's a Vibranium titanium alloy and Vibranium is almost exclusively found in Wakanda. If you let me keep it, I can find the Vibranium that was stolen by Klaue and any other bits and pieces lying around."

"We have a deal," they shook on it.

Tony walked back over to the Rogues with T'Challa and Rhodey flanking him, "Anyone want to tell me what this is really about? I know for a fact none of you have read the Accords in their entirety so don't try to pull that BS. You're going to prison, FYI, and not because of the Accords. You broke a lot of laws that predate World War II. You violated sovereign borders, you recklessly endangered and even killed people in the bridge collapse, the property damage alone is probably in the trillions so please, tell me, what the fuck was it all for?"

Sam said "I'll tell you but you gotta get Ant-Man out of here before the cops show up."

"Why would I do that?"

"You're gonna need him."

"Let's hear it then I'll decide."

"Zemo triggered Barnes to get the location of five other Winter Soldiers, it's in Siberia."

"Why do I care about Ant-Man?"

"You're a mutant and you're on the side of the Accords, clearly everything Steve said about them is bull. Ant-Man's on parole, we both got tricked into this but he had nothing to do with most of this mess."

"Just serious property damage. Yeah, alright." Tony turned to Ant-Man "Get up, follow me. Panther, Rhodey, watch them. The rest of us are gonna check out the base." Teleportation turned out to be a godsend as Tony was able to grab Zemo and throw him into a wall hard enough to cause amnesia while the rest of his team searched the base, finding the tape and securing it. Tony managed to spin it so Lang was a double agent, citing the theft from the Compound and Rogers' unorthodox recruitment of Wilson to deal with Project Insight as reason to believe they'd ask him. Taking Lang to Pym, he said "Split the bill and I'll ignore the theft from the compound," handing him the estimate the Germans gave him for Ant-Man's property damage.

"Fine."


	2. Avengers Tower

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter, in case the title didn't make it clear, predates the first.
> 
> randomplotbunny and I had a bit of a chat in the comments under the original chapter in What Superpower Should Tony Stark Have? and I liked their ideas so here we are

Only JARVIS knew about his Safe Room. When he built the Malibu Mansion, he had a basement separate to his workshop built and then he personally sealed off a section if it, carefully ventilating it without including vents. When he built the Tower with its private elevator, he made the new Safe Room an even bigger secret. There was a discrepancy between the official designs and the finished product, a large dead space. Pepper might remember Tony kicking out the quote unquote 'sweaty workmen' but she probably wrote it off as Tony being Tony. Truth is, Tony needed his Safe Room to be close by when he got out of the armor and unlike Malibu, his workshop was too far away. If he wasn't near the room when he went in then his secret would quickly get out.

About a month after Avengers got together following Project Insight- and the Data Dump, millions dead but who's counting?- Tony found Clint and Natasha hunched over blueprints, the Tower's blueprints. "Whatcha doin'?"

They spun around, Clint answering "None of your business, Stark."

"Funny you say that because I can clearly see my name on those blueprints. Planning a heist?" He walked around and snatched them up, "These are the Tower's blueprints, I thought all copies were digital. Did you print these out? Why do you have these? JARVIS can direct you anywhere you need to go."

They tried to snatch the papers back but Tony jumped back, rolled the prints up and put a rubber band on the role, "No. You have no reason or right to have these. I'm repossessing them. JARVIS, consider all SI property proprietary and keep the designs away from Ms. Rushman." As Nat rolled her eyes, Tony reminded her "Corporate espionage is a crime, so is poisoning someone's coffee or did you think I never figured out how you got so close so fast. I might reinstate your access if you tell me what this is about but I'm starting to doubt your ability to tell the truth. Goodbye." He was in the elevator before the spy twins could blink, and he didn't even have to out himself.

Over the course of their rather short stay at the Tower, Tony caught them repeatedly acting like they were planning a heist and when it became especially apparent the penthouse was the target, he looped in Pepper to his suspicions and had JARVIS further limit their access. The latter action prompted a visit from Steve, "Nat and Clint said you locked them out."

"Of my private residence and my personal lab. J, show him." A hologram displaying footage of the assassins' plotting appeared, "I caught them studying blueprints for my penthouse several times. I keep taking them away but they keep getting more and since they won't tell me what they're up to, I feel a bit unsafe. I told Pepper and she agrees, she's my voice of reason so-"

"Tony, we're a team."

"And Pepper is not on that team, Steve. She and I live together but she is not an Avenger. She asked me to tighten security so I did, should I not respect her right to feel safe? Should I disregard everything she says to accommodate two friends?" Tony looked Steve in the eye, "I am going to marry Pepper someday. Should I disrespect my future wife to make my friends happy?"

The words hit home and Steve's entire demeanor shifted, the hostility vanishing, "No, of course not. What about your lab?"

"They never had access. Only three people can access my lab anytime they want: me, Rhodey and Pepper. Everyone else needs to get permission from me on a case-by-case basis. Isn't that fair? Pepper runs SI, sometimes I do work for the company down here and like I said, I love her Steve. Rhodey might need to do maintenance on War Machine when I'm out of town and unlike the Avengers, he's actually qualified to use the tools here to do that. Neither Nat or Clint know how to use the tools here, neither of them are engineers. Tell me, why would they need access any more than Happy does? Happy's my head of security by the way. What would you do if you were left alone in here? Be reasonable, Steve, I don't even let SI's best engineers in here, why would I let two people who can't tell the difference between a particle accelerator and an Arc Reactor mess with my stuff?"

"I guess that is fair, so you really didn't restrict their access?"

"Oh, I did. Security gets an alert anytime they get near any proprietary designs, including building designs. If they do it enough, we'll have them arrested and charged the same as anyone else would be. The restrictions that are probably bothering them the most, which they didn't tell you about, are the ones I added to those designs. I still don't know how they kept getting blueprints but all copies of those are locked down now. Maybe they'll tell you why they kept studying designs for my penthouse, which they don't even live in, or why Clint tried to sneak through the vents to scope it out. I might've watched too much Mission Impossible- that's a series of movies by the way- because I put security in the vents and Clint nearly went deaf when he tripped one of the alarms but since they can't admit he was in the vents, they're redirecting their anger. It's unhealthy, Steve."

"I'll talk to them."

"You do that."


	3. After Sokovia

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony deals with the loss of a friend, the Avengers prove to be spoiled brats.

The first thing Tony did after the dust settled from Sokovia was begin work on psychic shielding. The second tied into the first, he paid for all of Maximoff's surviving victims to get brain scans so neurologists could, potentially, treat the after-effects. The Avengers did not take even the suggestion they should be scanned well so Tony played the landlord card "Either submit to the tests or find someone else to pay for everything. Do you have any idea how useful it could be to see how the serum affects your brain? For decades, scientists have wanted your blood, they've viewed it as the Holy Grail. They're just scans, Steve, but with you, we might be able to cure so many mental illnesses." He also played on Rogers' ego and got the man to order his team submit to the tests, even scoring a full physical to make sure their other organs weren't affected. Maximoff still had to be strapped down and her tests overseen by Vision, who was apparently immune to her power, but they got the data and Tony sent the scans to a Dr. Stephen Strange, requesting "I want you to deliver your findings to each subject personally and individually. They won't hear any criticism from me so if it's bad news and I deliver it then they'll say I'm lying to make myself feel better. If it's good news or no news then they'll say I wasted everyone's time. I'm also worried Maximoff might still be influencing them so I want you to schedule her appointment separately and allow Vision to be present to protect you."

"Is that all?"

"Doc, you're getting the Avengers' medical files and first crack at analyzing the effects of Wanda Maximoff's power, how much more prestigious can you get? I'm only asking you be safe and tell them what you find yourself before publishing."

"I suppose that's fair. Give me the NDA and any other legal documents you need me to sign."

"Huh," Tony handed over the file from legal that had post-its indicating where to sign.

"What was that huh for?"

"I actually thought the NDAs would be redundant with your professional code of ethics but I'm glad I consulted Legal anyway."

"Ah, yes. I think this comes down to a technicality. I didn't take the scans, I'm not performing surgery on any of them, they're not my patients and therefore doctor-patient confidentiality may or may not apply, technically."

"Right." Stephen finished signing and Tony handed over the tablet with the scans.

"Am I to understand I need to keep these scans on this device?"

"Yeah, if you wouldn't mind, it's a security thing."

"Of course." He flipped through, "Where's your scan?"

"Uh, work in progress."

"Dr. Stark-"

"I kept getting triggered in the damn machine which fucks up the scans."

"Oh, I see."

"Upside, lots of data on how PTSD affects the brain. You'll need to use their scans for a baseline then mine will unlock. Just take notes on this device so the program knows when to unlock secured files."

"I'll do that, Dr. Stark."

"Tony, you're looking into my head, might as well use my first name."

Stephen smiled "Tony then." At the inventor's confused look, he explained "Professionalism, better not to fall into the habit of using first names with your neuro-scientists, it'll make you look biased when we publish."

"Right but outside professional settings,"

"If we find ourselves outside professional settings then Stephen will be fine."

"Understood. If you need more data, just ask. Literally, the tablet has a microphone. If you'd prefer, I can show you the talk-to-text feature for taking notes."

"That might be useful." Tony showed him a button on the screen and Stephen promised to let him know when he had results.

While he waited for Strange to give his opinion on the physical effects of psychic tampering, Tony was stuck in the Tower alone. He couldn't risk exposing himself to the Witch. In the Tower, he was practically haunted by memories of JARVIS and for once, his Safe Room didn't feel so safe, feeling more like a cell than it ever had before. Aside from one quick trip, which gave FRIDAY a panic attack, Tony couldn't bring himself to go in.


	4. Strange

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony screws with Stephen Strange

Tony knows other teleporters, it was JARVIS's idea for him to network. Thinking about his oldest friend (sorry Rhodey) gave Tony pause as he swallowed a lump and made the jump to Kamar-Taj. The Ancient One smiled at him and he fell into step with the woman as she explained that a certain future apprentice was going to need his timely intervention if the universe was going to survive the greatest threats to its existence. Tony threw on a red hoodie when he got home, wearing it inside out to hide the MIT logo and teleported into Stephen Strange's home, making a show of teleporting around the place and messing with the man's organizational system without taking anything so that the security system would catch him.

A few years later, he helped train the future Sorcerer Supreme by grabbing him from behind and dropping him from a great height, off a fair sized mountain. Desperation was a great motivator and Strange mastered the Sling Ring in moments, fearing for his life. He found "Tony Stark?"

"Yeah?"

"You," he recalled the security footage "Why did you break into my house?"

"I didn't break anything, I was just screwing around, hence why I didn't take anything and left the footage undoctored." Tony teleported behind Stephen "The Ancient One's a friend of mine, be glad she called." He teleported back "Or you'd be on Mount Everest, freezing half to death thanks to her tough love approach." He vanished.


	5. Infinity War

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Telekinesis versus teleportation

Tony saw Hulk falling from the sky, "Are you seeing this?" Pepper turned and gasped, answering his question. "Be right back." Tony was too late to stop Hulk from crashing. "Uh, hi." Tony listened to Bruce warn about Thanos. "Not to make things about me but I was right about a bigger bad behind the Battle of New York. Good to know I haven't been slowly losing my mind for no reason." Then the giant donut landed and Tony acted on instinct, teleporting to grab Squidward then the giant and crashed into the ship. He let go, teleporting around some more to make sure they were truly out of commission. With the fight over before it could begin, Tony retreated to the Sanctum.

Overcoming his shock, Bruce asked "How long have you been able to do that?"

"It's not what you think." Tony called for a clean up on the aliens before facing the two sorcerers and part-time Hulk, "Dad experimented with the Tesseract, which is semi-common knowledge. Then when I was a teenager, I discovered I could teleport. Didn't seem related until I got Vision to commune with the Infinity Stone in his forehead and discovered the Tesseract held the Space Stone, the Eye of Agamotto- which I assume is that pendant- holds the Time Stone and the thing in his forehead is called the Mind Stone. After that, depowering Maximoff was child's play, no pun intended."

"She's not really a child," argued Bruce.

"I meant Vision, who is still in single digits."

"Oh, right." Then the implications sunk in "You've been able to do that your full adult life?"

"If you're asking about Afghanistan, I wasn't panicking right."

"I wasn't but what does that even mean, panicking right?"

"Well, I was also in shock and the panic I was feeling was laced with fear of exposure so teleporting wasn't really in the cards at that time, even though I had the power to do it."

"I was actually asking about the Avengers stuff."

"Dad was oblivious and a drunk by the time I hit my teens, nobody knew I could do it until-" He cut himself off "Long story short, people know now. There's something you need to see, papers you need to sign but that can wait until after we save the world."

"Right." Tony finally put his phone away and retrieved Vision, adding two alien assassins to the wreckage of the donut ship before taking a seat on the stairs inside the Sanctum, "Alright we got two Infinity Stones, four possibly dead aliens Stone-seekers, a partially destroyed donut ship and Bruce here saw the big bad boss who sent Loki to get the Tesseract in 2012. We need a plan before big bad Thanos gets here." Bruce started them off by telling them everything he knew, everything he'd so much as heard about Thanos, as both Banner and Hulk, and recounting his encounter with the Mad Titan.

Wong said "The Masters of the Mystic Arts are sworn to protect the Time Stone at all costs."

Tony looked around as everyone was processing all of that information then he teleported away and came back with pizza. "Really, Stark?" asked Stephen Strange.

"Yeah. My power may have come from an Infinity Stone, I'm not 100% sure, but my power isn't infinite. If you're not allowed to eat pizza now that you're a monk, that's cool, you don't have to eat any."

Wong almost smiled at that exchange "Kitchen is this way." They settled into the kitchen to make a plan over pizza, Tony calling up the Accords council to loop them in and let the strategists among them contribute. Apparently some interested parties were watching the Black Order (the four aliens Tony pounded into the giant donut) and had already come to offer aid to Terra, that aid mostly taking the form of armies ready to buy the Terrans time by trying to slaughter some of Thanos' forces in retaliation for the Mad Titan culling unsuspecting worlds. People were pissed and finding out that the Black Order was defeated by the same man who blew up a chunk of Thanos army several years prior gave them something to rally around. They wanted to avenge their fallen, their allies and all the innocents who perished because one man decided he knew best, half the universe be damned.

In the end, the aliens made more significant contributions to the planning than anyone on Earth/Terra. Tony ate almost a whole pizza on his own and when the plan began to form, he excused himself from the kitchen to get more food. "Dr. Stark," a voice over the phone asked "What is your range for teleportation?"

"Never really tested it but I doubt it can make the jump to another galaxy. Does anyone know what happened to the Tesseract? Maybe I could boost my power with that."

Bruce said "Uh, actually, I think I might have it. Loki did something right before Thanos and his Black Order boarded the ship, I think he might have given me the Tesseract."

"One last act of defiance, eh? Infinity Stones are attracted to each other, according to our alien allies. If you have the Tesseract, we should be able to use the other two stones in the room to pull it out. Give us a minute."

He muted the phone and retrieved "Is that a cat?"

Tony smirked at Bruce's question, "No, it's a flerken, a very special kind of alien that looks like a cat but has a pocket dimension for a stomach. Goose has swallowed the Tesseract before, how do you think Fury got it? Long story short, Goose swallowed it then coughed it up like a fur ball after her second owner left Fury to cat-sit."

"Okay."

Stephen and Vision got to work trying to call the Space Stone forward, the latter confirming its presence. Once it became corporeal, Goose tried to swallow it but Tony grabbed it and offered the alien cat a cheesy piece of pizza instead, Goose accepted the trade. Tony set the Tesseract down on top of the empty pizza boxes, unmuting the phone "We got three Stones. Any idea where the other three are?"

"Thanos has two of the stones, Reality and Power. The Soul Stone has been lost for centuries."

Tony picked up the Tesseract, closed his eyes and focused, teleporting to some cliff on another planet and watching an orange stone float up to greet him. Cautiously, he reached out to grab it then reappeared in the kitchen. "What's the Soul Stone do?"

"We're not sure," their alien contact answered.

"Uh, update the counter. We got four, Thanos has two but I'm betting he still thinks Soul is up for grabs."

"You got it?" the alien on the phone sounded shocked.

"Infinity Stones are attracted to each other, I used the Space Stone." The line went silent. "Maybe we should set up some kind of ambush where the Stone is supposed to be."

"Right, of course."

"I'll take my flerken and wait for Thanos, Goose can eat him and cough up the Infinity Stones, isn't that right, Goose?" Tony scratched the cat's chin.

The alien clarified "You have four Infinity Stones and a flerken?"

"The flerken originally belonged to the Kree scientist Mar-Vell who left it to the woman who would become Captain Marvel who left a man named Nick Fury to watch over it. Fury faked his death during a Terran crisis and I scooped up Goose after that. The flerken is named Goose, just by the way."

"Okay so a Kree brought the flerken to Terra and the flerken allows you to claim it."

"Her, I think, I'm pretty sure Goose is a girl."

"Allows you to claim her," the alien corrected.

"Yes but technically, Goose belongs to Captain Marvel, I think. Why are we talking about alien cats when half the universe is still in danger? There's nothing to say Thanos can't use his two stones to do what I did with the Space Stone, right?"

"Right."

"So I'll take my flerken and wait for him? We'll travel via Space Stone for speed. Will that plan work for you?"

"Yes, I think it will."

The plan worked and Tony took Gamora back to the kitchen with him, "You still there?"

"Yes," answered the alien. A glance at the caller ID showed only the alien liaison and the Avengers handler were still on the call.

"I got six Infinity Stones, a flerken and a green woman named Gamora. Did you figure out an actual endgame while I was gone?"

"Use the Stones to scatter them across the galaxy. As a Terran who can use the Space Stone, you will have to do the scattering."

"What about Thanos' army? While we have the Stones, can we not take them out?"

After a brief pause, the alien said "Perhaps Gamora could but a Terran cannot handle all six Infinity Stones. Do you have the Gauntlet?"

"Yes," answered Gamora, putting it on and watching the Reality Stone make it shrink to fit before using it to remove the Space Stone from the Cosmic Cube. She closed her eyes, focused and snapped her fingers. "Did it work?" The alien had to consult a few people before declaring a success.

Tony dropped the Soul Stone, which he had been holding since he got it, onto an empty pizza box and Goose swallowed it. "Probably best you hold onto it, just don't cough it up." Goose gave him a look then began to lick herself. Tony took the Space Stone in hand and banished the other two that were in the Gauntlet, sending them off-world then he banished the Space Stone itself. "We're good here. Have you contacted Gamora's people? She seemed to be a prisoner of Thanos."

"We are in the process of hailing the Guardians."

"Alright. We're done, right?"

The Avengers handler answered "Yes, Dr. Stark."

Tony hung up and turned to Gamora "They'll be able to direct your team," at her nod, he continued "To the Avengers Compound here on Terra."

"You can't have three Infinity Stones on one planet."

"After today, we won't. Goose belongs to Captain Marvel, either our alien liaison will contact her or you'll have to take Goose with you to return her to the Captain."

"Oh."

"Do you want some pizza," he pointed to the last slices in the open box, "Or would you rather just go to the Compound to wait for your team?"

"The Compound." Goose hopped up onto Tony's shoulder and he put a hand on Gamora's arm, teleporting them to the Compound. "How did you do that?"

"Dad experimented with the Tesseract, which housed the Space Stone. I think his experiments mutated him and that mutation was passed on to me or something, I'm not sure." The Guardians set up a rendezvous with Captain Marvel while they were on Terra, taking Goose to return her to her owner. All in all, a good day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tony said he was slowly losing his mind because nobody believed him and his preparations backfired (namely Ultron) on him, plus I imagine Wanda poked at his fears many times after joining the Avengers.


	6. Setting Terms

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What happens when one man saves the universe?

Following the revelation that Terra had waded into an intergalactic war and won, the planet received a lot of attention. The fact that one man won the war for them was not lost in translation, potential alien invaders making the conscious decision to try to wait until the man died on his own, banking on their longer lifespans and more or less ignoring the planet until the time was right. Much of the universe wanted to meet the man who bested Thanos and his Black Order, the Terran who all but single handedly saved the universe. The envoys who came to Earth refused to deal with its politicians, insisting they meet Iron Man first. Tony Stark had the clout and support to put his first official meeting on his terms, the problem became "What terms should I set?"

Stephen Strange spun around, having come to the Sanctum's kitchen after a long battle to replenish his strength before meditating to reinforce the wards on his mind that protected him from Nightmare. Sometimes, the former neurosurgeon looked at his life and wondered how he had gotten where he was. Once, he would have scoffed at the mere mention of meditation and wards, believing the former to be a waste of time and the latter to be superstitious hogwash. Now, they were a normal part of his bedtime routine. He supposed that he had earned his name, recalling the banter he shared with Kaecilius early on in his career as a sorcerer, back when the title earned an eyeroll. Pulling himself out of his thoughts, Stephen looked at the teleporter sitting in his kitchen, "Terms for what?"

"The aliens who have come to our backwater planet to meet me, what terms should I set for the meeting? Doesn't your order deal with interdimensional diplomacy? It can't be that different, can it?"

"Well, we are trying to keep the other worldly beings out of this world so yes, it is very different." Stephen asked "What do you want to come of this meeting? When sorcerers go to other dimensions on diplomatic missions, their- our goal is to talk the other representatives into leaving our world in peace. That doesn't seem applicable here since the aliens you're talking about want to meet their savior, they're not threatening our planet."

"I've kinda been deferring to the Guardians about that and all of the aliens who might want to invade Earth have decided that it's not worth the trouble of dealing with me, especially since humans have shorter lifespans than a lot of aliens."

"So they don't want to invade and/or destroy Earth, good to know. That wasn't my question, I asked what you want to come of the meeting."

"I don't know. If I knew that I could set terms no problem but I don't know."

"I think you do. You said the invading aliens are biding their time, I didn't ask about that, you brought it up."

"I mean, I don't want my death to be the equivalent to calling open season on Earth but that, I don't know how that translates to terms or how to bring it up with the aliens who aren't biding their time."

Stephen had to admit that goals probably weren't such a good starting place for this conversation. Switching tactics, he asked "Why do they want to meet you?"

"Because I beat Thanos and his Black Order."

"Why does that matter?"

"Because Thanos was going to wipe out half the universe."

"Not alone."

"I didn't even beat him alone but I guess, officially, I did."

"What do the aliens call you?"

"Iron Man." Stephen could see the dawning realization plain on Tony's face, "This isn't just about the Black Order, this is about the nuke and New York." He seemed to deflate, "This is about the Avengers."

"Yes but not those Avengers. If any of those aliens have honor codes, Rogers and Romanoff probably violated every one of them. Closing the portal while you were still on the other side and everything with Barnes, that was most definitely dishonorable. The aliens want to meet you not them."

"What do you mean not those Avengers? What other Avengers are there?" asked Tony.

"I thought there were two sides to the apparent Civil War. You also have me, Wong and Bruce. The Guardians are your allies but this meeting is a chance to make more."

"Right. When the time comes and one of those invaders decide to try their luck, maybe we can make it so they can't even get through to our solar system."

"Baby steps."

"Right. Terms?"

"Why don't you come back tomorrow?" Stephen remembered what he was doing when Tony first asked him about terms and decided to move forward with his plans to get some sleep.

"You got it."


	7. Wakanda

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony has a plan

With King T'Challa and his council's permission, Wakanda was chosen as the meeting place and the aliens were asked to each bring a piece of technology as a gift for Terra. Tony had a deal with Princess Shuri that would enable him to remotely partake in studying the technology without government interference. Tony asked T'Challa to be present in his Black Panther armor to show the aliens that Iron Man wasn't Earth's only defender, the Wakandan Council liked that suggestion much more than the one where they allowed people from other planets to violate their borders. At the meeting, Tony finagled and got a small ship filled with metals that are either rare or non-existent on Earth. "What was the point in getting all of this stuff if you were just going to leave it here?" asked Shuri.

"If I bring this stuff back to the US, the government will find a way to take most of it, even if they have to invent a new tax or something because that's the only way they can get this stuff. I'd like to work with you on a forcefield around the planet, consider this stuff my contribution to materials. Arc Reactors will have to power the forcefield-"

"Wait just a minute." Tony stopped talking to hear Shuri out "Why do you think we need Arc Reactors?"

"Because when I had an Arc Reactor in my chest, Loki's sceptre didn't work on me. That sceptre used an Infinity Stone, one of the most powerful objects in the universe. I think that Arc Reactor powered forcefields could be able to provide similar protection."

"Oh," Shuri had to admit "It's a good thing you got so much material."

"I have one condition for you keeping all these rare alien metals."

"What is that?" asked T'Challa, joining them in the lab with his council, likely wanting to make sure the colonist wasn't trying to control them or something.

"You have to start sharing technology. I don't care if you move at a snail's pace but no more stagnation. The Guardians of the Galaxy, our primary alien allies, told me that there are aliens out there waiting for me to die before they invade because they just don't want to go against the guy who beat Thanos and his Black Order. I asked our potential allies to bring us some of their technology so that we could progress, as a planet, technologically enough that those future invaders will think twice about moving forward with invasion plans. I'm sure nobody in the UN, Wakanda included, wants to be looked down on by the rest of the galaxy for the next few hundred years. Wakanda is advanced, that's why I wanted to have the meeting here, because any other nation would probably try to hijack the meeting for their own gain but Wakanda is advanced enough that you don't need to do that. Having the first official meeting here has given aliens the idea that Earth is a lot more advanced than they thought because Wakanda is so advanced but as soon as they realize that's not the case then we're in trouble. There's only so much good a reputation can do. We don't need the other governments, when the aliens deign to meet with them, pushing our planets' collective luck by puffing up their chest and pissing the aliens off. Earth needs to be able to stand on its own before anyone realizes that Thanos' army was taken out by the Infinity Stones themselves and that we haven't technically beaten an alien invasion, we simply closed a portal to end the Chitauri Invasion. I don't have any faith in politicians' ability to be sincerely humble, nor any Wakandan's ability to do the same. What I have faith in is Wakanda's ability to use the technology so graciously presented to you by alien emissaries and catch up with those aliens technologically, your ability to take their advancements and make them your own. The trick is going to be bringing the rest of the world up to speed so that no matter where the next alien tyrant decides to invade, they won't stand a chance of winning that war."

Shuri summarized, "Your condition for letting us keep a ton of alien metal that doesn't exist on Earth is that we help protect the world from alien invaders seeking to conquer the world, which includes Wakanda, by slowly but surely advancing the world's technology, putting those arrogant politicians in our debt and placing Wakanda on top, politically and technologically. Instead of being looked down on, Wakanda would be looked up to for raising Earth's standing with the universe." Shuri told her brother "He's offering us help and calling that payment for another kind of help."

The council members quietly discussed the matter, forming a sort of huddle, before giving King T'Challa the go ahead. "Your terms are more than acceptable, Dr. Stark."

"Thank you, King T'Challa. Princess Shuri and I still have to set up a secure means of communication to keep any trade secrets secret from interested parties."

"Of course, we will leave you to it."

Tony turned to Shuri after the Wakandan leadership left "Thanks for bailing me out, some of the council looked like they wanted to kill me for suggesting Wakanda share its technology."

"You made a good case."

"But I'm an outsider and Wakanda's culture has basically developed around its isolation."

"Essentially, yes." Shuri suggested "What if we made a Wakandan translator?"

"Hm?"

"For the communication system. Basically, the program would translate everything to Wakandan and you'd use a separate Wakandan to English translator-"

"Why not just teach me Wakandan? I already speak a dozen languages."

"You are fluent in a dozen languages?"

"Did you learn two languages as a kid or did you pick up English as an adult?"

"I've always been multilingual, I suppose. Why?"

"Bilingual kids have an easier time learning new languages, my mom was Italian so I've also always been multilingual. I am fluent in English, Italian, Mandarin, German, Japanese and French, to give you half the list."

"Wow."

"I'm also fluent in American Sign, Arabic and Latin."

"I suppose Wakandan wouldn't be too hard for you but I still have to get permission-"

"It's alright, I get it, having a secret language is very useful for an isolationist nation."

"Exactly."

"Won't using Wakandan to encrypt messages expose the language to code crackers?"

"Bast, you're right."

They ultimately went with a fusion of their preferred coding languages, creating a new language in the process. "Looks like we're all set. Should I go tell someone, like your brother, that I'm leaving or can I just pop out?" Shuri let a Dora Milaje know he was leaving before suggesting he just pop out.


End file.
